Sunday, 2 February 2014

Green Olive, Garlic & Rosemary Pancakes and a Giveaway

I was recently gifted a lovely selection of olives from Fragata. Some black, some green and some stuffed with garlic.
There was also a jar of hot peppers which I am longing to try out with some
houmous and falafels. Fragata specialise in Spanish olives and other
mediterranean products.

I love olives, in sandwiches, on pizza, or munched on their
own, but rather than just eating them in their natural form, I wanted to try
something a little different. After a short ponder between scones, muffins or
pancakes, I settled on pancakes. Having pancakes for a lunch is a weekend treat
of mine that I hadn’t yet done this year, so pancakes it was to be. I usually
make sweet pancakes, so the idea of savoury salty olive pancakes intrigued me.

The green olives stuffed with garlic sounded particularly
good and I decided to pair it with fresh rosemary as olive, garlic and rosemary
sounded a great flavour combination. I made the batter for the pancakes using
brown rice and chickpea flour, the latter having a very savoury taste and
slightly dense texture. This seemed fitting for savoury pancakes and I thought
its earthy flavour would be lifted by the salty tang from the olives.

To accompany my pancakes I wanted something light and fresh
and went with a fresh milky ricotta cheese that I flavoured with fresh rosemary
and lemon zest. This worked really well, its light fresh flavour adding a
delicious contrast to the savoury salty pancakes.

I loved the flavour the green olives gave to the pancakes.
Unless you look closely you can’t really tell they are there, as they hide
camouflaged in the batter, but when you bite into one, a sharp salty tang and
that wonderful fresh olive flavour fills your mouth in a most satisfying way.
The garlic wasn’t too pungent (as I feared it might be) and gave a subtle hint
of flavour. The ricotta then neutralises the saltiness from the olive, getting
you ready for the next bite. Simply delicious.

Giveaway

The lovely people at Fragata are also offering
one of you the change to win a sample of some of their products. All you have
to do is leave a comment telling me what your favourite olive is and how you
like to eat them. Competition open to UK residents only. Only one entry
per person. Competition closes at midnight on Saturday 8th February.
The winner will be chosen at random. Please leave a way for me to contact you
should you win. Good luck!

Green Olive, Garlic & Rosemary Pancakes and a Giveaway

Ingredients

50g chickpea/gram/besan flour

30g brown rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

115ml milk

10 garlic stuffed green olives

10 leaves fresh rosemary

¼ tsp dried oregano

Freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp oil

To Serve

100g ricotta

Zest of ¼ lemon

7 leaves fresh rosemary

6 cherry tomatoes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut the tomatoes in half and place
cut side up on a foil lined baking tray. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Then
turn off the oven and place two serving plates into the oven to warm. Also put
in another place topped with a sheet of kitchen roll to hold the pancakes and
keep them warm as you make them.

Spoon the ricotta into a small bowl and add the lemon zest.
Finely chop the rosemary, add to the ricotta and mix together well. Store in
the fridge until required.

To make the pancakes, weigh the flours and baking powder
into a bowl and mix together. Chop the rosemary and add to the flour along with
the oregano and a few twists of black pepper. Don’t add salt as the olives are
salty enough.

Slowly add the milk, whisking well to remove any small lumps
of flour. You should end up with quite a thick batter.

Chop the olives into rounds so you have a ring of olive
filled with a small piece of garlic in each slice. Fold the olives into the
batter.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Drop level tablespoonfuls of
the batter into the pan, trying to get a few bits of olive in each one. (It’s
best to do this in small batches) Cook for 1 minute before flipping over and
cooking on the other side until lightly golden brown. Remove the pancakes from
the pan and transfer them to the plate lined with kitchen roll that’s keeping
warm in the oven. Repeat with the leftover batter. You should get around 6
pancakes from the mix.

To serve, divide the pancakes between the two serving
plates. Place a couple of spoonfuls of the herby ricotta onto each plate, you
can quenelle them by shaping it between two spoons if you want to be fancy.
Scatter around some of the roasted tomatoes and finish with a little fresh
sprinkling of lemon zest and rosemary if desired.

Eat and enjoy. Makes 6 pancakes

Serves 2 as a light lunch, or mini ones could be used as canapés.

Note: Fragata did not pay me for reviewing their products
and I was under no obligation to give them a positive review. These thoughts
and comments are my own.

8 comments:

Love the use of chickpea flour in the batter Katie. My favourite olives are either stuffed with Feta or marinated in herbs..... eaten by the sea in the harbour on a warm summers day, straight from the olive stall with a cocktail stick!

Beautiful photos - I really want to make olive penguins that I have seen on pinterest but we are not in the habit of using olives much - wish I could sneak some in for sylvia with those pancakes but I think she might guess :-) Her best friends loves olives though and I would love the pancakes.

Gosh those are beautiful. I am partial to green olives. I like to slice them and pan cook them a little bit in olive oil with roasted pepper bits too, then put them in an omelet with goat cheese.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~margueritecore [at] gmail [dot] com